Bangladesh is voting in its first general election since a student-led uprising toppled Sheikh Hasina’s 15-year rule in August 2024. What began as protests over public sector job quotas spiralled into the deadliest political violence since independence, leaving more than 1,000 people dead and dismantling one of South Asia’s most entrenched political orders.
Now 127 million voters in the Muslim-majority nation of 170 million people are electing 350 lawmakers — 300 directly and 50 reserved for women — in what European Union observers have described as the “biggest democratic process of 2026, anywhere”. More than 50 parties and over 2,000 candidates are in the fray.
